Reusable Containers Info

A limited number of reusable containers are available for purchase HERE.

If you would like to offer feedback on the reusables and/or the compostable containers we've been using in our weekly UWE@home meals, please follow THIS LINK to a survey. We appreciate your thoughts! Thank you!

Welcome to our reusable container pilot program! We are delighted to reduce our plastic footprint and become a more sustainable program, as encouraged by our customers and in line with our values. 

We’re excited about our new containers! They are sturdy glass with a BPA-free snap-on lid, and they align most closely with what YOU asked for in our reusable container survey. 

The price we are charging to buy into the program doesn’t quite cover our costs to purchase the containers, much less to pay the dishwasher who will be sanitizing them every week. We are committed to making sustainability affordable for all of our customers, and so we are subsidizing the program with the help of several generous friends of the program.

If you regularly order two meals, you will need to purchase two sets of containers. We invite you to consider whether or not you order food frequently enough to purchase containers. If you order food once a month or more, this is often enough to purchase containers, but if you order food less frequently, we aren't sure if we will get enough containers coming back in to send back out again!

Unfortunately, you can’t bring your own personal containers from home, as per health department food safety rules that require us to clean and sanitize containers in-house prior to serving food in them.

We anticipate a robust response to this pilot program, and while we’re starting with reusable containers for entrees, we anticipate future expansion featuring side/dessert containers. 

Please contact beth@softlandingmissoula.org with questions and feedback. Thanks!

 

THE WAY IT WORKS:

1. Purchase reusable containers when you order your meal. One order = 2 containers. If you are ordering 2 meals, you’ll need to order 2 sets of containers.
2. When you come to pick up your meals, we will see in our orders that you purchased reusables, and we will dish up your order in one of the containers.
3. At home, reheat the food if needed and enjoy!
4. Please clean the container at home.
5. Next time you pick up food, bring back your clean container, and place it in the designated return tub for us to sanitize. 
6. UWE staff will note that you returned your container, and dish your meal up in your other glass container (already sanitized).
7. If you forget to return your container one week, no worries! We’ll serve your food in disposable containers and you can bring it back next time you order and try again!

 

If you damage or lose your container, we will have spares for purchase.